By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

CONCORD, N.H. – When teachers unions and their purchased allies in public office attack school voucher programs, their main argument is that vouchers drain state funds from public schools.

That’s because, in most voucher proposals, state money would simply follow the student. If a student attends a private or parochial school, most of his or her share of state education dollars would go to that school, rather than the public school district where the student lives.

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But education reformers in some states, like New Hampshire, have a different approach. They simply want to assist private scholarship funds that help low- and medium-income students attend private schools. Their method is to offer state tax credits to businesses or individuals that contribute to those funds.

There is no direct transfer of state money to private schools or outside scholarship funds.

But the unions and some politicians still oppose such efforts. New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch recently vetoed the “School Choice Scholarship Act,” which was designed to provide tax credits to companies to contribute to private school scholarship efforts.

Supporters of the bill say the program would “help give families of limited means the same opportunity wealthier families have to send their kids to private schools.”

Luckily the New Hampshire legislature had the courage to defy Lynch. The state Senate voted 16-7 Wednesday to override the veto, while the state House voted 236-108 to do the same. That means the bill is now law, despite the objections of Lynch and his allies in the teachers unions.

The bottom line is that the unions and the entire public school establishment want to trap as many students as possible into their system, to guarantee maximum state funding. That funding will keep a maximum number of public school teachers working and maintain a steady flow of dues dollars to their unions.

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But parents deserve the right to choose the best school for their children, whether it be public or private. And their choices should not be limited by their inability to pay private school tuition. There is nothing wrong with state governments encouraging private sources to help families pay tuition.

Three cheers for the New Hampshire lawmakers who had the courage to ignore the unions and stand up for the working families and children of their state.